Attacks on journalists have chilling effect

Freedom of the press in the United States decreased profoundly in 2013, according to a new report from "Reporters Without Borders."

The United States plummeted 13 places - to number 46 on the Global Press Freedom Ranking. We now sit uncomfortably between Romania and Haiti.

The dramatic fall was "one of the most significant declines" in the world, the report said. It says the Obama Administration's attack on journalists and whistleblowers - as manifest in various prosecution and seizure of reporters' records - has had an outright chilling effect.

"Freedom of information is too often sacrificed to an overly broad and abusive interpretation of national security needs, marking a disturbing retreat from democratic practices. Investigative journalism often suffers as a result," the report says.

"In the United States, 9/11 spawned a major conflict between the imperatives of national security and the principles of the constitution's First Amendment. This amendment enshrines every person's right to inform and be informed. But the heritage of the 1776 constitution was shaken to its foundations during George W. Bush's two terms as president by the way journalists were harassed and even imprisoned for refusing to reveal their sources or surrender their files to federal judicial officials.

"There has been little improvement in practice under Barack Obama. Rather than pursuing journalists, the emphasis has been on going after their sources, but often using the journalist to identify them. No fewer than eight individuals have been charged under the Espionage Act since Obama became president, compared with three during Bush's two terms. While 2012 was in part the year of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, 2013 will be remember for the National Security Agency computer specialist Edward Snowden, who exposed the mass surveillance methods developed by the U.S. intelligence agencies.

"The whistleblower is the enemy. Hence the 35-year jail term imposed on Private Chelsea/Bradley Manning for being the big WikiLeaks source, an extremely long sentence but nonetheless small in comparison with the 105-year sentence requested for freelance journalist Barrett Brown in a hacking case. Amid an all-out hunt for leaks and sources, 2013 will also be the year of The Associated Press scandal, which came to light when the Department of Justice acknowledged that it had seized the news agency's phone records."

These developments have stamped out information, at the point of origination, by making would-be whistle-blowers too fearful of their government to speak against it. That is the textbook definition of tyranny and should frighten everyone.

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Attacks on journalists have chilling effect

Freedom of the press in the United States decreased profoundly in 2013, according to a new report from 'Reporters Without Borders.'